September 5, 2012

I’ve had my deltoids massaged in candlelight by a licensed therapist; had a foaming pore cleanser and mask applied to my face by an aesthetician; been instructed in the Warrior, Half-Sun Salute and Dancer poses by a yoga instructor; and crawled into a hanging cocoon for a “meditative snooze.” I worked up quite an appetite doing all this, so I ordered vegan corn chowder and gluten-free chicken chile verde washed down with Fiji water — all courtesy of the Huffington Post.

And yet we know the hotels you have to sleep in are horrible and bedbug-infested, not that I'd envy this time-wasting nonsense if I didn't know that. Personally, I'm glad to be in Madison, Wisconsin, blogging the convention by watching it on C-SPAN.

How many single moms had to forgo the once-a-month treat of pizza for their children so this rich white guy could have the life of the 1%?

(Say, class warfare is fun - and easy! No need to worry about accuracy, just take an apocryphal tale of hardship, put it next to someone you don't like enjoying wealth, and let the reader's envy do the rest. Thanks for the idea, Democratic Party!)

Most of all, real men don't get "my deltoids massaged in candlelight by a licensed therapist; had a foaming pore cleanser and mask applied to my face by an aesthetician; been instructed in the Warrior, Half-Sun Salute and Dancer poses by a yoga instructor; and crawled into a hanging cocoon for a “meditative snooze.” I worked up quite an appetite doing all this, so I ordered vegan corn chowder and gluten-free chicken chile verde washed down with Fiji water..."

Ah yes. The first-world concerns/values of our first-world press. No wonder they view buying your own contraceptive, much less foaming pore cleanser, as denying you access to same. Imagine a real middle class working person reading that embedded quote, and thinking THESE are the people evaluating what is reasonable for the rest of us to provide.

Like the NYT, the Post does not make it's ethics policies easy to find, if they can be found at all. A quick internet search produced nothing. There is no apparent link to their policies of ethics on their home page.

From a PBS story in 1999, I found what purported to be the Post's ethics policies then. They said "We accept no gifts from news sources. We accept no free trips. We neither seek nor accept preferential treatment that might be rendered because of the positions we hold. Exceptions to the no-gift rule are few and obvious – invitations to meals, for example. Free admissions to any event that is not free to the public are prohibited. The only exception is for seats not sold to the public, as in a press box. Whenever possible, arrangements will be made to pay for such seats.

YH--actually Milbank's goodies come from the corporations that the Democrats love to milk and then chop up for hamburger. They pay. A lot. I credit Milbank for being clear about that (though he was kind of short in the outrage department.)

Point taken and noted. But my point was not from where the goodies come, but rather if you enjoy a lifestyle of goodies received, it may warp your ability to evaluate what is and is not a necessity, what should and should not be paid for by others.

The real suffering imposed by Obama and his merry band of marxists on middle-Americans, be they in flyover country or on the coasts, simply doesn't register on the gluten-free likes of metrosexual Milbank and his fellow chattering class apologists.

I think I first commented around the time of the 2000 GOP convention that the idea of a physcal convention was just about done. Everyone knows that the folks who attend are either campaign and party functionaries who are getting a small perk for their faitrhful service, or as this article points out a gaggle of press.

The networks are not covering the majority of hours of speeches and presentations at either convention. At least the Republicans were able to do away with that "Idaho, the state that produces more potatoes than all the rest of the world combined, minus Uraguay and Afghanistan, proudly casts..." crapola.

I think you could easily do this as a hosted video conference and save all the money spent on travel, hotels and convention centers (which is substantally funded by the taxpayer anyway).

Yours is the rational conclusion (I totally agree right up to the next convention that fails to produce a clear winner during the primaries), but not the reasonable conclusion. The convention IS important to all the delegates and is a reward for and spur to their further efforts.

Its like saying the fans should stay home when their teams have a bowl game because you can see it better on TV than in you seat.

For me the question is how much press conventions should receive. No one yet has come to the conclusion that they are only worthy of news coverage rather than major event coverage.

It is a Love Fest for the government propaganda arm, such as MSNBC. Those folks are full of joy and faith in the god Obama's glorious kingdom which they all belong to. Even Andrea Mithcell looks 30 years younger like a teenager in love.

They are beaming like they are newly converted born again Christians. They are in love with King Obama.

Once again , when people refuse to believe in the real God's truth, they will believe in anything else no matter how irrational and deceptive.

I do not listen to NPR much at all anymore. However, I listened to Mara Liasson today, and was still stunned at the lack of any effort to disguise what she was saying as spin. It boiled down to "Republicans perceive the case to be ____, but they are wrong."

I make room for the possibility that it's just me. I wonder if Garage or Allie heard the story, and whether they would agree that it was a near complete spin job, regardless of whether they agree with the spin.

There's a NewAge tag (it's one word, BTW) which is good, but you got the quote wrong:

I’ve had my deltoids massaged in candlelight by a licensed therapist; had a foaming pore cleanser and mask applied to my face by an aesthetician; been instructed in the Warrior, Half-Sun Salute and Dancer poses by a yoga instructor; and crawled into a hanging cocoon for a “meditative snooze.” I worked up quite an appetite doing all this, so I ordered vegan corn chowder and gluten-free chicken chile verde washed down with Fiji water — all courtesy of the website run by a dyed-in-the-wool cultist.

Let's get the whole story right - Romney's a cultist, Arianna's a cultist, Oprah's a cultist,....

Yeah, I did read the article, and I don't see what I got wrong about it. My previous comment makes clear that there are corporations buying access.

The article says that the pavilions are all sponsored by other media outlets. WITHIN those pavilions, they have clearly sold access to corporate sponsors, just like the media always sells advertising. Are you reading the article differently?

This, of course, becomes a welcome smoke screen for the press, who can now say that they are being feted by their own and not corporate interests. Nudge--nudge.

Here's a leaked excerpt from Clinton's speech:“The most important question is, what kind of country do you want to live in? If you want a you’re-on-your-own, winner-take-all society, you should support the Republican ticket. If you want a country of shared prosperity and shared responsibility — a we’re-all-in-this-together society — you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.”

"If you want an economy that operates under the same principle as mine did when we actually had a semi decent economy vote for Romney....er, Obama Biden/ Yeah thats what I meant.If you are form tax cuts to spur an economy vote for Romney, er... tax cuts? That's a terrible idea.If you're for welfare reform vote for Romn...er, what am I saying, Obama undoing all my reforms is the way I would vote>If you are for upholding the defense of marriage Act I Passed... er...If you are for for supporting Israel...er...If you are for supporting Don't Ask Don't....er...If you are for bank deregulation taht lead to a robust economy...er...

Crack (on his website) wrote:Arianna Huffington became a disciple of the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, whose cult practiced open sexual intercourse among its members, and with its leader, as a central sacrament of their faith.Now that's a good way to cure most people of their desire to be in a cult. Make them have sex with Arianna Huffington.

I’ve had my deltoids massaged in candlelight by a licensed therapist; had a foaming pore cleanser and mask applied to my face by an aesthetician; been instructed in the Warrior, Half-Sun Salute and Dancer poses by a yoga instructor; and crawled into a hanging cocoon for a “meditative snooze.” I worked up quite an appetite doing all this, so I ordered vegan corn chowder and gluten-free chicken chile verde washed down with Fiji water

Is that a description of a cultist, or a metrosexual? Tehy sound awfully delicate, but I don't really see all that much to villify them over here. They just sound like a bunch of pampered Little Lord Fontelroy's.But what's wrong with gluten free chicken or Fiji Water or having your deltoids massaged by a licensed therapist?

Tim wrote:Most of all, real men don't get "my deltoids massaged in candlelight by a licensed therapist; had a foaming pore cleanser and mask applied to my face by an aesthetician; been instructed in the Warrior, Half-Sun Salute and Dancer poses by a yoga instructor; and crawled into a hanging cocoon for a “meditative snooze.” I worked up quite an appetite doing all this, so I ordered vegan corn chowder and gluten-free chicken chile verde washed down with Fiji water..."

Is that a description of a cultist, or a metrosexual? Tehy sound awfully delicate, but I don't really see all that much to villify them over here. They just sound like a bunch of pampered Little Lord Fontelroy's.But what's wrong with gluten free chicken or Fiji Water or having your deltoids massaged by a licensed therapist?

Yeah, leave it to you to miss EVERY IMPORTANT ISSUE involved in this:

1) It's all paid for by a cultist who has made it her business to shape the dialogue of a nation.

2) 1) It's all paid for by a cultist who the media hasn't exposed as such, while partaking of her goodies - a breach of journalistic ethics.

3) It's all paid for by a cultist who supposedly runs a supposedly-objective news outfit - to specifically support the Democrats - also a breach of journalistic ethics.

4) It's all paid for by a cultist whose news outfit has been involved in multiple gruesome murders (don't make me dig for the links).

5) It's all paid for by a cultist whose news outfit is a steady purveyor of misinformation and quackery - also mostly unreported.

But, of course, YOU (in all your enlightened brilliance) see nothing going on here:

Crack you make it sound as if I'm somehow a fan or defender of ariannah huffington or the huffington post. But to me her cultism is the least if the issues, and if she was part of no cult shed still be odious. So it's not like I'm disagreeing with her lack of integrity as someone who is supposed to be objective. I just dont see why the cult aspect is all that relevant.